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CHAPTER SIX

TZAIN

“Z é LIE ! ” I SHOUT. “ Z éLIE ! ”

I yell my voice hoarse. I yell long after they take my little sister. Long after she disappears through the arched door.

For so many nights, all I wanted was to see her face. To know that she was okay. But now that’s not enough.

They’re dragging my sister away.

“Mama! Mama!”

I slam my eyes shut. My body turns to lead. I squeeze the bars of my cage as it all comes rushing back. The night I’ve lived to forget.

They took Mama just like this. They beat her down. They dragged her by her neck.

I was too afraid to fight.

I let my mother die that night.

“Mama!”

Something breaks inside me at the memory of my own cries. The entire world ripped in half that day. I thought the sun would never rise.

And now it’s happening again. Right before my eyes. The only family I have left is slipping through my hands.

I have to do something before my sister dies—

The arched door to our hold rips open. Instinctively, every boy moves to the back of his cell. One Skull re-enters the cargo hold, brass keys jangling in his hand.

As he leers through the iron bars, blood drips from the open gash in my arm. The wound burns like a fire under my skin. The Skull has to be coming for me.

Retaliation for almost breaking free.

But instead of opening my cell door, he opens another down the hall. The maji scramble as the Skull reaches for Udo, the boy who used his chains to trip the Silver Skull.

Fight! I will Udo on. The maji tries to escape the Skull’s grasp. But the Skull grabs his head.

An angry crack echoes through the hall as the Skull snaps his neck.

No.

My hatred flares. The others look away, but I force myself to stare. Udo’s chains rattle as he falls to the floor.

Another maji stolen, lost to this war.

All of us stay silent as the Skull leaves. The Skull doesn’t even bother to take Udo’s body from the hold. We’re left with Udo’s fresh corpse, a warning of what will happen if we attempt another escape.

But staring at Udo’s body, I see Mama’s feet hanging overhead. I see Zélie bleeding out on the floor.

I’ll save you , I vow to myself.

I won’t allow myself to lose anymore.

I reach into the back of my pants. The animal-skin pouch I managed to grab is warm in my hands. Tar-like liquid leaks from a tear in the pouch’s skin. The rope that ignites its fuse is split and frayed.

I move to the front of my cell, sticking my hand out to wave the other maji forward. The threat of the Skulls forces us to keep our voices low. The wooden ship creaks as we gather.

“Hold out what you managed to grab,” I instruct.

One by one, maji extend what they stole: bits of metal, sulfur pouches; a maji in Udo’s cell even brandishes a dagger. Gathered over the past moon, almost every cage has a tool, a way to pick at our chains and break the locks on our doors. With Zélie’s distraction, we have a chance.

We finally have enough to break free of these cells.

“Listen to me,” I whisper to the others. “We have to strike. Now. Udo was just the first. The Skulls will return to kill us all.”

“It’s too dangerous.” Taiwo, the maji chained to my left, speaks up. He points to the blood soaked into the wooden floor. “You saw what happened after Zélie attacked that Skull!”

At the thought of the Skull who transformed, a shiver runs down my spine. When his blood fed into his crimson hammer, he became someone else.

It was like he lost his mind.

“That was just one.” Taiwo shakes his head. “How are we supposed to take them all?”

“Together.” I dare to raise my voice. I offer the maji a show of strength. “If we swarm them at once, we can take them down. We can keep them from using their weapons.”

“We should wait till we make land,” another maji offers. “Surprise them when they take us off the ship.”

“Even if we survive the trek, who knows how much worse it will be when we reach their lands? How many we’ll have to attack? I know you’re scared,” I continue. “I know we’re taking a risk. But we have to try . This is our best chance!”

I look around my cell, searching for an ally. Anyone who will help. But no one joins in.

Everyone in the ship’s hold stays still.

“Come on!” I scan the desperate faces beyond my cage. “If we work together, I know we can break out. We can even take the ship!”

Across the way, Kenyon, my old agbon mate, meets my eye. The elder of the Burner clan, he’s barely recognizable without his white locs. Dirt covers the tattoos on both his arms.

“We’re not meant to die in these cages.” I shake my head. “The Skulls think they’ve broken us, but they’re wrong. I know we’re strong enough!”

Kenyon rises to his feet. I recognize the familiar flame that ignites in his eye.

“Tzain’s right.” The Burner looks to Udo’s corpse. “We fight or we die.”

With the order of an elder on my side, the rest of the maji fall in line. The hold begins to ring with the sounds of maji tinkering. My heart pounds as we work to pick our locks.

I take the animal-skin pouch and let the tar run over the padlock on my cell. I cover my nose as its sulfur scent reeks. Though there’s little left in the pouch, the metal starts to bubble and steam.

Smoke builds in the hall as the others use what they have of the enemy’s corrosive tar. When every lock is weakened, we prepare to charge. As soon as the Skulls hear what we’re doing, they’ll return.

It’ll take everything we have to break out before they swarm.

“On the count of three!” I look to the maji in my cell. To the others down the hall. “Give it all you’ve got!” I demand. “Don’t hold back!”

I cling to the image of Zélie’s face in my mind, to the feel of her trembling shoulders in my hands. I don’t have time for fear.

I have to escape from here.

“Three!”

I’ll become strong , I vow to her spirit.

“Two!”

I won’t let anyone hurt you again.

“One!”

The moment I count down, we all break forward. The hall erupts as we hurtle our bodies against the weakened iron.